FACULTY/ STAFF NEWS

An Eye on the Pond Turtle Headstart Project

Biology Professor Nick Geist’s Western Pond Turtle conservation project is the subject of a segment on Eye on the Bay on KPIX (5) on June 15 at 7 p.m. The segment is part of a program concerning the pond turtle project as part of their coverage of the Oakland zoo's conservation programs. Geist and his students have been working with the Oakland and San Francisco zoos for several years to provide a “head start” program for the turtles who are endangered. Above is Geist with EOTB host Liam Mayclem.

SSU English professor and poet Gillian Conoley has been included in W.W. Norton's Postmodern American Poetry Anthology (2nd edition) that also includes the works of renowned poets Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, Amira Baraka, Charles Olson, and Barbara Guest.

"I'm very honored to be included in the anthology." Conoley said. "It was a lovely surprise."

Three of her poems were chosen: "Native," "This Land Is My Land," and "[My name is the girl with one glass eye said bitterly]".

Edited by Paul Hoover, poet and professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University, the anthology features 114 poets, 557 poems, and 15 poetics essays, and includes important recent movements such as Newlipo, conceptual poetry, and Flarf.

This is the second time Conoley's work has been featured in a Norton anthology. The first was in Norton's American Hybrid, published in 2009. She is the author of eight collections of poetry, including The Plot Genie, Profane Halo, Lovers in the Used World, and Tall Stranger, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her new collection, Peace, is forthcoming in 2014 with Omnidawn, and her translations of Henri Michaux will appear with City Lights the same year.

McCuan Serves on Election Reform Panel with CongressmenAlso on HUFFPO LIVE! Discussing Gun Control Through the Ballot Box

Political Science Professor David McCuan recently participated in a public forum on election reform with Congressmen Jared Huffman and John B. Larson at Dominican University. McCuan joined the congressmen as the lone academic representative. “This was a pretty prestigious invite by Congressman Huffman,” McCuan said.

The invitation was extended by Huffman and his office and marked the first constituent meeting/ town hall of his congressional career.

McCuan sat on a panel alongside Larson who earlier this year was named Chairman of the Task Force Election Reform by Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. The Task Force was created to develop a legislative agenda for reforms to take big money out of politics and address flaws in the electoral system.

Phillip Ung of Common Cause, a nonprofit advocacy organization working for political change in America, also spoke at the forum. Students from Dominican College, College of Marin, SSU, and other community leaders were able to discuss these issues and ask questions.

Attending the forum allowed McCuan to share his thoughts concerning campaign finance and reform with individuals who can readily implement those ideas.

He recalls that both Congressmen were “furiously writing notes about the ideas I put forth and asked for a copy of my remarks and talk afterwards.”

McCuan regularly offers his perspective on KSRO and KCBS radio one to two times per week depending upon what is happening in politics.

McCuan recently participated in a Huffington Post Live! event on putting gun reform in the hands of the people through ballot initiatives. It can be viewed at http://huff.lv/18ahgqu.

Robert Girling Recognized for Business Simulation Expertise

Business Professor Robert Girling has been committed to teaching his business students through real-world experience. One way he has been able to accomplish this is through the continued use of a computer program called CAPSIM, an online computer based simulation that challenges students to run a $100 million company. His success in the classroom earned him recognition this past January by Management Solutions Inc. (MSI) as Featured Professor of the Month.

After nearly twenty years using this computer-based simulation, both Girling and his students are still finding that CAPSIM is a powerful learning tool for business acumen.

Each week students meet in their company team to make between 100 and 125 business decisions. The decisions cover virtually every aspect of running a business from financing operations to setting prices.

Girling said, “it challenges them to put into practice, not write just about, all that they have learned in their entire college career.” Each week they practice applying management skills and building strategies in which students learn. Moreover, each team sees the results of their decisions in comparison with 2000 teams from universities around the world.

Matt Benney Honored for Educational Equity Contributions

Matthew Benney, Associate Vice President for Academic Support, was recently presented with the Friends of WESTOP award at the Western Association of Educational Opportunity Personnel annual conference in Honolulu, HI recently. The award is given each year to an individual, corporation or organization that “has made significant contributions to the field of educational equity through personal, financial, moral, political or ideological means going above and beyond the call of duty”. Former winners have been congressional reps and senators. Benney's nomination was made by Emalyn Lapus from the Japanese Community Youth Council in San Francisco.

Benney currently oversees the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, supervises ten federally funded grant programs and serves as the Principle Investigator for a national training grant through the U.S. Department of Education-Higher Education Programs Division. He has been actively lobbying Congress on educational equity policy issues for more than twenty years and is very active in mentoring young educational equity professionals throughout the western region.

Ajay Gehlawat Explores Multiple Controversies of “Slumdog” Phenomeon

Hutchins Professor Ajay Gehlawat spent his time as a doctoral student at the City University of New York Graduate Center studying film and theatre. Beyond simply watching movies, Gehlawat became fascinated by representations of race, class, gender and sexuality in cinema. During this time one subject in particular stood out to him: Bollywood.

His body of research encompasses representations of Bollywood in cinema. Continuing with this theme, Gehlawat has recently published The “Slumdog” Phenomenon, a critical anthology responding to the 2008 feature film, Slumdog Millionaire.

Winner of numerous awards and the epicenter of multiple controversies, Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire has fueled a series of debates regarding depictions of India and the slum, its references to Bollywood, its global circulation and success, and its reception by critics and audiences.

The anthology brings together a collection of critical essays exploring the multiple controversies surrounding the film from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Edited by Gehlawat, each of the book’s four sections considers a particular aspect of the film- such as its relation to the nation, to the slum and to Bollywood- along with its reception and theorization.

The book seeks to address these controversial topics and, in the process, provide new and innovative ways of looking at the film.

Gehlawat’s first book, Reframing Bollywood: Theories of Popular Hindi Cinema (Sage, 2010), combines multiple theoretical approaches to provide a fresh perspective on Bollywood and challenges the homogenizing tendencies in much of the ongoing scholarship in the field.

His research has been predominantly concerned with the construction of femininity in 1970s Bollywood, the viewing of Hindi cinema by subaltern audiences in India, and the use of media in the classroom.

He has also written essays exploring the racial dynamics of The Princess and the Frog, the erotic Orientalism of James Bond, and the cultural identities of Harold and Kumar.

Along with Bollywood and Indian cinema, Gehlawat is concerned, more broadly, with contemporary trends in film studies, postcolonial theory and popular culture.

Sullins Discusses Moral Arguments for Robotic Weapons Arms Control

Philosophy Professor John P. Sullins will be presenting an invited paper on the moral arguments for robotic weapons arms control as well as speaking on a panel on ethics and autonomous weapons at CyCon, June 4-7, 2013 in Tallinn, Estonia. This conference is sponsored by NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence and IEEE.

His paper will focus on the ethical criticisms of the overuse of telerobotic and semi-autonomous weapons systems which have been enthusiastically embraced by politicians and militaries around the world. The paper suggests certain considerations motivated by the philosophy of technology that might be worthy of addition to future robotic arms control treaties.

Sullins argues that these technologies, through the process of reverse adaptation, can change our notions of just-war theory to the point that caution in their use is recommended until further analysis of these effects can be accomplished.

Wasp on Media Panel

Jean Wasp, News and Public Information Coordinator, recently gave a presentation to the Association for Fundraising Professionals in Santa Rosa as part of a media panel. Wasp discussed the university's strategy for developing news on its web site and home page. She described how she nurtures relationships with the media and creates story ideas for ongoing coverage of SSU.